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Wednesday, 2 January 2008

Books read August - December 2008

Although I haven't been posting here long - since August - here's my list of books read since then, with links to my reviews here or at Cat Musings. I wondered if picking a favourite (rather than a "best book" which wouldn't necessarily be the same) would be possible and, after much deliberation, came up with the following: in non-fiction it's Traveller's Prelude, Freya Stark's book about her early years, compelling for its candour and atmospheric writing, though hard on her heels would be Philip Marsden's The Bronski House, a lyrical retelling of the lives of Polish poet, Zofia Ilinska and her mother, which I have yet to review. Favourite crime novel was certainly just-completed The Black Seraphim by Michael Gilbert (I'll be posting about it very soon), while favourite fantasy and Young Adult books are the same: The Greenstone Grail by Amanda Hemingway. I'm reading the second in the Hemingway trilogy at the moment, and finding more of Michael Gilbert's elegantly written crime fiction is top of my list. And I must mention Frank Baker's Miss Hargreaves, also still to review, which is a treasure - a huge thank you to the various people whose reviews drew it to my attention. All of these would be strong contenders for "best book" too.

Most of the books listed here have been enjoyable, and I count it a good period of reading, with only one or two disppointments (though there have been some discards along the way, which aren't recorded here). I don't have records for January-July, but I do recall a handful of authors/books I read with immense pleasure: Connie Willis (particularly To Say Nothing of the Dog), Diana Wynne Jones and, best of all, Frances Hardinge's glorious Fly by Night. There were some notable re-reads during that time, too - Elizabeth Goudge's The White Witch, all of Elizabeth Pewsey's Mountjoy series, and - remembered from childhood - The Country Child by Alison Uttley. Fingers crossed that 2008 turns up as many good books.